Fasting and Eating for Health (25 page)

That doesn't mean we can't improve their condition, but by failing to use this nutritional approach earlier, they have denied themselves the ability to achieve a complete remission of their illness.

Many of the people who are taking multiple medications when they first seek my services cannot be placed on a fast initially. First, we must decrease their dependency on medication. Tapering medications such as prednisone may take many weeks while they are improving from the dietary change. We utilize the fast at a later stage when they can more comfortably stop their medications.

Sometimes I recommend natural anti-inflammatory substances, which do not have the same toxicity as drugs, to help us taper off the medication. These natural anti-inflammatories include fish oils, borage oil, and flax oil, taken either alone or in combination, to help lessen the need for more toxic drugs.

These can be especially useful in reducing the need for prednisone in arthritis and colitis patients, and have been shown in multiple studies to do so.63 Other nutrients, such as fructo-oligosaccharides, and beneficial bacteria are occasionally indicated to help enhance the healing of mucosal epithelial tissue.64

One of my patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis appeared to be doing very well. She exhibited less and less joint pain as she followed the diet I had prepared for her. We slowly tapered her prednisone and other drugs over a three-month period. About one week after she was finally off all drugs, she phoned to tell me she had suffered a severe flare-up of her condition, and was immobile in almost every joint in her body. She was ready to give up and go back on prednisone at this time. Fortunately, I convinced her that this was the tune to begin her fast. Her symptoms resolved quickly while fasting and now, years later, she has never had a reoccurrence of her rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

If the fast is followed by a low-protein, natural food, vegetarian diet and the individual avoids irritating foods that have been found to cause the immune system to over-react, he or she can be forever cured of the autoimmune illness. Fasting is the starting point. It should be thought of as the initial preparation of housecleaning before embarking on a new way of eating and living that will support health and not cause the body to break down again.

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Many people will feel this approach is too sacrificial, that it requires too much discipline, or takes too long. Some are looking for instantaneous health, so they continue to search for "cures" that don't exist. However, the people I see generally state they are "sick of being sick" and are glad to finally get to the bottom of their conditions and attempt to remove the cause. They don't find the diet restrictive, as there is sufficient variety among their choices. Rather, they enjoy the foods and their new-found health. They usually show determination and a positive enthusiasm, and accordingly earn the desired results

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Medical Conditions Respond to

Fasting

This is the first time I have felt well since my honeymoon. I finally have control and insight as to my own body. I feel young and beautiful again. Thank you, Dr. Fuhrman.

— P. REILE

Fasting Is Effective for a Large Variety of Ailments
I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the benefits of fasting when I was very young. I have been able to observe its usefulness over the years for thousands of people. Today, there are a mere handful of physicians practicing this approach in the country. But many patients with grave conditions seek this type of help after all other approaches have failed. First, though they embarked on another journey, spending years searching for and seeing all the top specialists in the field and spending huge sums of money. They tried various drugging treatments, yet still became worse. They hadn't yet come to the understanding that drugs do not remove the cause of disease, and they were given more and more toxic substances to ingest by well-meaning physicians.

While these drugs were consumed in hope of lessening their symptoms, the causes of disease continued to press on with their nefarious influence, allowing the disease to progress and worsen. Then, they often spent many more thousands of dollars on alternative practitioners and were given more "cures"

to no avail. Finally, after years of searching, these determined but still suffering individuals were told there is a method of care based on human physiology, and they decided to try it as a last resort.

Unlike other methods of disease treatment, fasting is not based on giving cures, because to expect a cure or remedy to undo years of wrong living and self-abuse would be the same as believing in magic. Neither magic, nor getting something for nothing, works in the health and disease care arena. We cannot suspend the laws of cause and effect by ingesting medicinal substances.

Instead, fasting is based on unchanging biological laws that insist the cause of disease be removed.

After hearing about a natural food diet and therapeutic fasting, individuals may enthusiastically give it a try and get well. It is also possible that they may become excited about the sensibleness of this approach and the prospect of finally recovering their health, but then go home to their friends and family and become discouraged after being told that they would be crazy to attempt such an "outrageous" treatment. They might even call a few doctors they know only to be told that fasting is risky, dangerous, and stupid.

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It continually amazes me how "expert" opinions can be given on something with which someone has had no experience, knows nothing about, and has never researched. I once had occasion to speak to one such well-meaning physician who was furiously opposed to fasting. I told him I had read, and was thoroughly familiar with, more than five hundred medical journal articles on therapeutic fasting. I inquired as to which ones he was familiar with to help him reach his opinion. His answer was that he had not read any of them. He actually had zero knowledge about the subject and began to ask me questions.

He was consumed with the same vague fears and questions the typical layman would have. Though still having doubts, after our conversation he admitted he had given his opinion too hastily, and had much more to learn.

The physicians who regularly utilize therapeutic fasting in their practice see so many remarkable recoveries that getting well is the expected, the normal outcome. This is because nature heals when given the opportunity.

Still, despite these studies on fasting and plant-based diets, the world largely ignores this treatment because it is contrary to the present system of medical practice. Doctors would have to remodel their entire approach to health and disease, and many physicians would have to admit that most of what they do is not needed or useful. This is not going to happen soon. We must expect powerful opposition to the method of care presented here.

Too often, scientific experiments prove nothing. Frequently, the source of the money dictates the answer. Yet these experiments are all we have to go by and are crucially important when we are testing potentially dangerous drugs that may have various hazardous effects. Fasting and adopting an optimal diet designed to aid one's condition; on the other hand, are health supporting. They will make a healthy person even healthier.

Most physicians who have knowledge and expertise in therapeutic fasting advise it for those wishing to maintain their body in optimal health and to extend life. It is not merely for the sick. Many of these physicians, including myself, have personally undertaken long fasts, and may do so periodically. For example, Dr. Alec Burton, an osteopathic physician who has fasted more than thirty thousand patients, undergoes a two-week fast every few years for the long-term health benefits that accrue from the rejuvenating effects of the fast.

I too, plan to undergo another fast in the near future even though I am in excellent health.

The point I am making is that fasting improves one's health, rather than insults it with dangerous drugs or unnecessary and potentially deadly surgery.

If fasting does not lead to complete recovery from a certain condition, it will not hurt you, either, and will actually improve your health.

Patients who choose this method of care generally become the most enthusiastic supporters of fasting once they have undergone the experience.

They are excited to have avoided surgery or a lifetime of drug use. Many different conditions are aided by fasting, a few of which I shall discuss in this 132

chapter.

Using Fasting to Conquer Uterine Fibroids
When I fasted my first patient with uterine fibroids, and watched the tumor shrink by 78 percent after two weeks of the fast, even I was surprised by how effective fasting was for this condition. In Randi's case, we knew that prior to the fast the tumor had been getting larger with more severe bleeding for years.

Many physicians encouraged her to have it surgically removed. Randi chose to fast instead.

Pelvic ultrasounds done by a radiologist both before and after Randi's fast documented the cubic size of the tumor and the exact percent of shrinkage that occurred. Her fibroid tumor measured 473.6 cubic centimeters before the 14-day fast and 105.8 cubic centimeters after. Of additional note was that this patient also had rosacea, a chronic distressing skin condition with extreme redness around the nose and cheeks. The rosacea disappeared with fasting and did not return.

More than half a million women have hysterectomies each year. Many of them experience depression, painful intercourse, and urinary problems after surgery. Fasting not only allows the fibroid to shrink, but also often sets into motion a process in which the fibroid continues to shrink after the fast. The pain and pressure from fibroids and the excessive bleeding predictably respond to this method of care. Avoiding unnecessary surgery is precisely why many patients choose to undergo a therapeutic fast.

Using Fasting to Conquer Benign Tumors

Fasting is a safe and effective approach for not only fibroid tumors, but also most noncancerous tumors. Nasal polyps, lipomas, benign ovarian tumors, and benign tumors of the breast often respond favorably to therapeutic fasting, especially when the person is not very overweight.

When an individual has lots of fat on his or her body, the likelihood of reducing a tumor through fasting is uncertain because the body will likely use the fat stores as the primary energy source rather than the tumor. The best way to utilize fasting to shrink a benign tumor in severely overweight persons is for them to adopt an excellent diet and exercise program for some months prior to fasting. After they are in better shape, they can undertake the fast and expect more predictable results.

Fasting can also be utilized to aid in the diagnosis of a suspicious mass such as an ovarian tumor. Since noncancerous or benign ovarian tumors typically respond rapidly to a fast, one may undertake a fast and then recheck with ultrasound to see if the tumor has shrunk. If, after a ten-to fourteen-day fast, the tumor stays the same size, then it is more likely that the mass may represent cancer and should be surgically removed.

Cancerous tumors should not be expected to respond to a fast. If a 133

cancerous tumor does shrink or disappear because of fasting, it is most likely it was not cancer to begin with, and the diagnosis should be carefully reconsidered. Generally, fasting should not be recommended for patients with cancer. An individual with advanced cancer may be advised to fast, not to improve his or her condition, but to lessen pain and hasten death. When a person is suffering from advanced disease and will soon die, he or she may die more comfortably while fasting.

Cancers are generally unregulated growths. Their behavior is uncontrolled, and the cells multiply rapidly, disseminate (metastasize), and invade surrounding structures. Factors such as hormones, adequacy of blood supply, and various unknown influences can affect their growth. Noncancerous tissue, on the other hand, is more responsive to bodily control because benign tumors behave more predictably, are generally more slow to grow, and follow normal rules. The nutritional and hormonal changes that occur in the fasting state, especially as body fat stores are largely depleted, cause the body to recognize noncancerous tumors and target and tap them as a source of extra (unessential) tissue for nourishment. The body has less influence over the behavior of cancerous tumors,

which often seem to have their own,

independent agenda.

Using Fasting to Conquer Sinusitis, Allergies, and Asthma
Sometimes even relatively minor chronic conditions can be troublesome to a patient—conditions such as recurrent or chronic sinusitis and allergies. Even when these conditions become advanced and patients are advised to undergo sinus surgery, I routinely watch them rid themselves of the problem by adopting the fasting/optimal diet approach.

One patient who came to me had been advised to have sinus surgery the following week for chronic congestion and obliteration of his left sinus cavity, as demonstrated on a CT scan. He had been complaining of allergic rhinitis, facial pain, and troubling congestion for years. He came to me for a second opinion in the hope of avoiding surgery. I suggested we delay surgery for a few weeks and try a more conservative natural approach first, to see if it would help.

Thinking he had nothing to lose, he agreed, but felt he would still require surgery within a few months. The plan was for him to undergo a fast in two or three months after following a nontoxic, high-antioxidant diet to maximize his immune response. At the followup visit one month later, before he fasted, he noted his symptoms had significantly lessened. In fact, by the time I saw him at the next followup one month later, his symptoms had completely resolved, his CT scan had normalized, and he did not need to fast. Obviously, his condition was not resistant enough to require a fast. He decided to continue the healthy diet and was pleased with the results. Fasting can be very helpful for cases of resistant sinus congestion, and can even shrink nasal polyps.